"Very few people in the world have managed to get to this level" says Icelander Mr. Svavar Gunnar Gunnarsson, a masters student at the Niels Bohr institution and an enthusiast about classical computer games. Last Tuesday Mr. Gunnarsson managed to get the so called Kill Screen in the game Donkey Kong, he received 824.300 points and the machine crashed.

The term Kill Screen is well known among gamers. This happens when the memory of the machine is full and then the game crashes, sometimes this is called Winning the game at least in Donkey Kong. Steve Wiebe, a competitor from Redmond, Washington, attained this screen when he attempted to beat Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong high score (which was the world record) on G4TV at E3 2009. It was the first kill screen to be broadcast on live television.

Mr. Gunnarsson started playing the game after he saw the documentary King of Kong. The documentary is about addicted gamers. "I thought that this was the best game that I have played. The game is addicting and you cannot stop playing"

"But then I stopped playing and didn't play for two years. When I moved to Copenhagen I found out that there was an arcade close to where I lived. In there I found Donkey Kong. I thought: Jesus Christ, I have to try to beat by record! I joked about getting the Kill Screen but then it just happened" he said and laughed.

The world champion in Donkey Kong, dr. Hank Chien, who has managed to get 1.100.000 points in the game, congratulated Mr. Gunnarsson on his Facebook page.

"It meant a lot to me to see my name on the list of people who have achieved this" Mr. Gunnarsson added.

"Video games as we know them today came into their own in the 1970s with the creation of arcades. Anyone who knows anything about gaming can tell you that. What’s less commonly known is that the first video game was patented way back in 1947, with the creation of the cathode ray tube amusement device. Not the catchiest trade name, but this simple little gizmo, with only a dial and big red button on its controller, is the reason we have games today. The first games were beyond basic. Turn the dial to move the dot until it’s over the airborne target on screen, then hit the red button to blow it to hell! However, from this basic concept came the precursors to Pong, Space Invaders, Asteroids!, and every FPS ever created!

Realistically, I don’t intend to dig up gaming consoles from the 1940s. Not only would it be damn near impossible, but it would be dull and boring and desperately, desperately dull! Also, they would make for the shortest column ever written: “I pushed the button, and it blew up. The end.” So I decided to start with one of the most famous old school games out there: Donkey Kong, the first jumping platformer ever made.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of platformers in general, but something about the retro graphics (the sound was on mute) and the utterly bizarre concept of a barrel-throwing gorilla, with an inexplicable hatred for you, gives Donkey Kong a charm of forgiveableness. The more research I did, the more entertaining the game became. Originally, the hero’s name was simply “Jump Man” and his girlfriend was imaginatively named “Lady”. As if that wasn’t amusing enough, the name Donkey Kong, is rumoured to have come from a bad Japanese translation of ‘stupid ape’, which can now be roughly translated back to mean ‘ass monkey’. Even if that isn’t true, it’s still a damn good insult for the bastard who’s throwing barrels at you!

I can’t deny I was glad there were only 4 levels. By the fourth I was running out of expletives and my laptop was bearing the brunt of my rage. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that it took me nearly an hour to reach level 4, after a multitude of failed attempts, but that damn fireball was being an utter troll! However, I think the flag-ship status of Donkey Kong is what makes it fun to play nowadays. If you played it as a child, it gives you a strong sense of nostalgia. For those playing it for the first time, you get the feeling you’re looking in on an important step in the history of gaming… like the moon landing, only more pixelated and with more gorillas. As I played through, my boyfriend watched me over my shoulder, witnessing my noobish deaths at the foot of ladders and my poorly-timed jumps, which ultimately resulted in death too. But I didn’t mind his jokes and him laughing at my rants because they made me realise that Donkey Kong is most fun in retrospect. It’s at that moment when a reference suddenly makes sense, or when you can legitimately laugh at a joke because you understand it, not because you read about it on the internet, that the significance of Donkey Kong becomes so obvious, even to a first-time player."

Today I had a co-worker, with no interest or knowledge of my DK play, show me a slashdot story about the role reversal DK (play as pauline) on his smartphone.

I had a similar experience yesterday. A former co-worker sent me a link to one of the many online articles, with a "Breaking News" subject line. I replied with a link to this forum's "A Role-Reversal Hack!" thread, suggesting that his news was "so 2 days ago". I also included a link to Allen's "Rage Compilation #4", assuring him that it was perfectly safe for work.

Just kidding with that last part. I did send the video link, but I also attached an appropriate warning.

I seen this the other day where this guys daughter wanted to play as Pauline so he programmed it to reverse roles and Mario was yelling for help instead. Also was reading about a donkey kong Easter egg on atari where Don hodges I believe searched through the code to find out how this Easter egg could be found.

"Boise Weekly previously took you below ground to Spacebar Arcade, where a group of classic arcade gamers battled it out in a Galaga tournament Feb. 21. After the success of that tourney, more than a dozen players turned out March 28 to try their hand at a similar competition—this time featuring the Nintendo classic Donkey Kong.

For those unfamiliar with Donkey Kong, the premise is simple on paper. A giant ape has kidnapped a pretty blonde lady and a Mario-esque "jumpman," as he's called, must save her. To do so, players jockey a knob and a button to jump over barrels.

For the competition, each player had a single quarter to drop into the machine and five minutes to achieve a high score. Unfortunately for me, I'm better at downing suds than I am at dodging barrels.

On my first run, I scored a paltry 2,200 points without getting past the first level, whereas BW's Josh Gross scored 7,800. Meanwhile the frontrunner, Mike Ramshaw, scored 32,000 on his first shot.

Alas, a second run did me no better. I scored 1,500—less than 10 percent of some of the other competitor's scores. Ramshaw walked away with first place at 32,000 points, Joel Wallace achieved second place with 29,500 and Cam Gunn took third place at 29,100.

Each took home swag—including hats and pint glasses—from tournament sponsor Ninkasi Brewing Company from Eugene, Ore. A Pac-Man competition is planned for April."

SHERWOOD — Gamers, get ready. A new outlet for hours of Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac Man, Tron, Gauntlet and more is coming soon to the Three Rivers area.

Terry South of Jacksonville and Daniel Solis of Sherwood, by way of Heber Springs, are the men behind Arcade Wizards, a local coin-operated game repair outfit. After they teamed up for work two years ago, the friends decided that it wasn’t enough to just repair games; they wanted to help connect fans with the retro games they loved.

South and Solis formed the Classic Gaming Association, bringing in crowds of up to 60 at 7 p.m. the last Tuesday of each month for a night of free gaming and tech talks.

“We try to be home by midnight, but sometimes that doesn’t happen,” Solis said.

There’s no charge for people to attend, and all the games are set on “free play.”

The events take place at the Arcade Wizards offices in Sherwood, a nondescript warehouse space filled to the brim with retro games.

When they first walk in, visitors are greeted by the duo’s most-prized games: Atari Star Wars, Gauntlet and a red-cabinet Donkey Kong, one of only 2,200 made.

“The red Donkey Kong is fully restored and powder-coated with new Formica and new decals,” Solis said.

The restorations took South and Solis two months and just under $1,000 to complete.

The warehouse’s storage section holds more than 130 games in various stages of repair. The games are so densely packed that it’s impossible to reach some, let alone play them.

But Solis and South have a plan to make the games more accessible. This summer, the pair plan to open Z82 Retrocade in Sherwood, on Kiehl Avenue near Kapow Comics.

The space will include 45 to 50 games, which Solis and South will rotate in and out. For now, the plan is for the Retrocade to be open six days a week, beginning at 4 or 5 p.m. on weeknights. Visitors will be charged a set price when they arrive, and all games will be set on free play.

“It’s a unique way of doing it,” South said. “But if someone is getting $5 in change and playing, you’re not always getting that money back. We don’t think we’ll get rich, but it has to pay for itself.”

Solis said the Retrocade will have to be closed at least one day a week for repairs and upkeep. One of the benefits to having two coin-operated game repairmen running the business is that repairs will be quick — a bonus when most of the equipment is hovering around 30 years old.

“The coin-operated business has been going downhill since the ’80s due to a sheer lack of technicians to fix them,” South said.

Some of the games are so old, Solis said, that it can take two weeks to fix a game that will only work for two more weeks before breaking again.

The process of integrating new technology while maintaining the authenticity of the games is no small job. Solis and South have put in countless hours on their game collection, going as far as

Illinois, California and Georgia to purchase games, and staying in their shop until midnight or 1 a.m.

“We have no intention of getting rich,” Solis said. “But it’ll be nice to have a place to be in our golden years.”

Both Solis and South have worked as technicians in the amusement industry for decades and are avid gamers themselves. Solis counts Tron as his favorite, while South prefers Gorf.

“Even though we’re both very good, neither of us logs scores,” Solis said. “We keep ourselves out of it, but we’re always around for advice.”

Members of the Classic Gaming Association come from Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Bryant, Conway, Searcy, Hot Springs and more locations to attend the monthly meetings. The group is a mix of ages, and at one point, more than half of its members were women. In addition to game play, meetings also include technical demonstrations on a variety of topics, including air conditioning and computer maintenance.

Many members come to play just one game, such as Donkey Kong or Ms. Pac Man, and Solis and South are confident that the players’ enthusiasm will carry over to the Retrocade.

“People we don’t even know are asking about [the Retrocade],” Solis said. “We want a place where everybody can play every day.”

Rick Worrell of Austin has been a member of CGA since the beginning and looks forward to the Retrocade opening this summer as a place where retro game enthusiasts can meet.

“The social aspect isn’t there with games today, where you only talk to people in a microphone,” Worrell said. “With the Retrocade, you get to go to a place and talk to people and get that social interaction that’s so lacking in today’s world with all the Internet communication.”

Although a retro arcade recently opened in Fayetteville, Solis and South believe Z82 will be the first arcade of its kind in central Arkansas.

More than anything, Solis hopes the Retrocade will give gamers an opportunity to socialize with each other.

“There’s a kinship that exists when you’re playing the game with someone rather than over the computer,” he said. “If you lose, you’re frustrated, but you also want to congratulate them. I don’t think that exists in any other competition.”

"Do you hate spending weekends in the office? Talk to Michael Birken. He spent nearly a year’s worth of weekends and holidays at his, filming this ridiculous sticky note stop-motion homage to arcade classics Ms Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.

The project took a total of 96 days spread out over 11 months, Birken says, using 4800 Post-Its in the process. He concedes that the background scenery was masked out and replaced with a single consistent frame, but otherwise each frame was hand-constructed on a wall, shot, and then transferred into the scene you see here."